


Simple Kindness

by universal_reno



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: -ish?, At Least He Tries to Be, Cyborgs, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Kraglin is one of the good ones, Or maybe he's just got a thing for blue people, Possible pre-Kraglin/Nebula
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-11
Updated: 2017-05-11
Packaged: 2018-10-30 16:02:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10880199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/universal_reno/pseuds/universal_reno
Summary: Kraglin was the only person in as many years who’d shown any inclination to give a damn about her without expecting something in return





	Simple Kindness

**Author's Note:**

> Couple of days after I saw the new movie Kraglin/Nebula occurred to me for some reason. And then I was like, nah, she'd totally eat him alive. But then I wrote this anyway. I dunno what the point of it is or how good a job I did with Nebula. She and Gamora are a lot harder for me to write than Quill or Rocket or the Ravagers, so I hope I didn't make her too ooc. Up next, Kraglin and Mantis! ...Or not. I have no idea.

It started with the simplest of things. Taking a bit of extra time to calibrate her new cybernetic hand, running her through the controls of the M-ship, asking what she wanted to do with her share of the bounty. Kraglin wasn’t a complex guy, but he was considerate in his own way. 

At first Nebula had been tempted to find his behavior patronizing. But even the most basic levels of kindness had been a rarity in her life and his casual friendliness was far more welcome than she let on. Not that she needed friends. Thanos had trained her to work alone, and she intended to kill him the same way.

Still, she found herself drawn to Kraglin after the battle with Ego. Mostly because the circuits in her arm were fried beyond what she could repair one handed, but also, though she’d never admit it, because he’d seemed so shattered since Yondu’s funeral. 

She cornered him in the hangar bay were he and Peter had been working to salvage what was left of the Milano. He hadn’t shown much interest in the rest of his new teammates thus far, preferring the familiar presence of his former crewmate. For his part Peter seemed reluctant to let the Xandarian out of his sight for long, perhaps afraid to lose yet another part of his adoptive family. Nebula envied him that fear, or at any rate the bond that inspired it.

“Ravager, I require your assistance.” 

Kraglin glanced up from the shield generator he’d been stripping for parts. When he saw who it was he straightened up and greeted her with an easy smile that didn’t reach his eyes. Nebula felt a pang of what she knew abstractly must be pity. Mourning didn’t suit him.

“What can I do for ya, Miss Nebula?”

She looked at him quizzically for a moment. He had an even thicker version of the backwater Xandarian accent that Yondu had favored. It was strangely endearing. Emphasis on the strangely. 

“You’re familiar with cybernetics, yes?” She held up her arm as far as she could. Everything from the elbow down hung limp. “It was damaged during the battle. Your previous work on it was sufficient and I hoped you might be able to repair it again.”

Kraglin’s smile got a little more genuine. He knew enough to gather that ‘sufficient’ was high praise coming from a daughter of Thanos. 

“Yeah, sure. C’mon, lets get you up to the med bay.”

“Here will suffice.”

“Suit yourself then.” He gestured for her to sit down on one of the pilot’s seats he and Quill had pulled out of the Milano the day before. 

He made quick work of the outer shell of the prosthetic and fiddled with the internal wiring in silence for several minutes. She watched him intently. Such an unassuming person, but he certainly knew what he was doing. 

“You were the one who designed Udonta’s implant, I take it.”

He didn’t look up from his work. “Not designed, exactly. Captain had that thing put in his skull by the Kree when he was a kid. I just made a new one based off their version. He was real touchy about it… Arrow was mostly what kept the crew in line a lot of the time.”

“You were his mate, then?”

“Yeah, first mate. Only one he trusted not to mutiny… Guess I fucked that one up pretty good.”

“I meant, were you his… Never mind. It’s not relevant. He was very fond of you, I think.”

“I sure was fond of him. ‘Bout the best you could ask for in a captain, even if he did spoil Quill somethin rotten. Was more loyal to his crew than we deserved.” His voice caught slightly and he bit his lip, redirecting his attention back toward the repair.

“This’ll sting a little” he warned, plasma torch poised over her arm. His thumb stroked almost apologetically over the exposed circuitry. 

“Get on with it then.”

The torch touched wire and a spike of electricity tore through Nebula’s shoulder, stabbing at her chest and knocking the breath out of her. The cybernetic joints in the rest of her body seized and the vision in her augmented eye cut out. For a few seconds everything was blissfully, peacefully, black.

When her vision faded back in all she could see was red. She blinked and shook herself before she realized Kraglin was holding her up and her face was pressed against the red leather of his coat. If she stayed that way a second longer than was absolutely necessary there was no reason he had to know. 

A moment later she sat up, still looking somewhat dazed. 

“Take it easy. Jolt like that would’ve stunned Drax.”

“Fortunately I’m more durable than the so-called Destroyer. I’ll have to be, for the coming battle with Thanos.”

“You sure do love to keep bringin that up. You ‘n Drax should start a club or somethin.” 

She yanked her partially reassembled arm out of his grasp and fixed him with an icy glare. “Thanos murdered my family and destroyed my life. Vengeance is all that’s left for me. So yes, I do keep bringing it up.”

He held his hands up in a brief gesture of surrender before pulling her arm back towards him to finish the repair. His expression was the same mask of long-suffering patience that he’d seen Yondu wear countless times when dealing with everything from Ravager diplomatic crises to sulky adolescent Terrans. 

“Most of my family’s dead too. Taserface killed ‘em. And then Yondu killed him. And then Ego near as killed Yondu and Peter killed Ego… And ya know what? None of that makes a damn bit of difference to my missin any of ‘em. But I still got Peter and you still got Gamora and for me at least that’s reason enough not to go chargin off to die in the fucking void.”

Nebula was taken aback for a moment. Of course he didn’t actually understand. He couldn’t. Not even Gamora understood how Thanos had tortured her. But at the same time he had a point. All she’d really wanted for all those years of being torn apart and reshaped into a killer was the support of the only sister she’d ever know. And now that Gamora had finally offered it she was ready to cast it aside in the name of revenge. 

Still, she wasn’t about to concede the point to some idiot pirate who’d unintentionally sparked off the mutiny that had killed his own friends. Even if he was the only person in as many years who’d shown any inclination to give a damn about her without expecting something in return. 

“It’s not just for my sake that Thanos will die” she spat.

“Never said it was. All I’m sayin is, you don’t gotta do it alone. And maybe you don’t gotta get yerself killed in the process, neither.”

“Why do you care?”

He shrugged noncommittally and gave her now-functional cybernetic hand a friendly pat. “Dunno. Guess maybe the galaxy’s lost enough grumpy blue assholes who couldn’t admit their own good intentions for one week. Or maybe I just don’t wanna see no more of my friends die.”

“I’m not your friend, Ravager.” She stood up and made for the doorway, but paused to rest a hand on his shoulder for a moment. “But I do appreciate your services, and will do my best to avoid being damaged again.” 

With that she slipped out of the hangar. A few hours later Kraglin watched as her M-ship sped away to stars knew where. Somehow he knew he’d see her again, but he got the feeling that when he did it’d probably be near the end for one or both of them. He just hoped that end would be a long time coming.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry about the ending. I've just got a real bad feeling about how Infinity War is going to turn out for Nebula.
> 
> Also, having someone assume Yondu and Kraglin were fuck buddies but not being able to confirm it is apparently becoming a thing with me. Mostly because, as much as I like that ship, I also really like them as regular old redneck space pirate bros and haven't been able to decide which version fits in my personal take on the Guardians-verse. I'll have Krags get back to you on that if I ever make up my mind on the issue.


End file.
